By Nam Hyun-woo
Korea’s two conservative cable news channels faces possible punitive measures for airing programs distorting the Gwangju Democratic Movement, a broadcasting watchdog said Wednesday.
According to Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), the country’s broadcasting watchdog, the members of its Committee of Broadcasting Review unanimously agreed to impose legal punishments on the broadcasters’ news shows.
The two channels, TV Chosun and Channel A, aired interviews with North Korean defectors last month claiming the communist regime was behind the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Movement in 1980.
They claimed that North Korean infiltrators sneaked into Gwangju in 1980 to incite Gwangju citizens to revolt against the government.
The broadcasts in question implied that the democratic movement was not a civil uprising against former President Chun Doo-hwan’s dictatorship, but a riot manipulated by the North.
Both broadcasters apologized about distorting the facts, but faced a strong backlash from civil organizations.
The five-member committee decided the two programs should be “fined” or “warned.” According to the watchdog’s broadcasting review regulations, a program with a minor violation faces an administrative guidance, but programs severely violating the regulation face legal punishments such as fines or broadcast suspension.
The KCSC will finalize the level of the punishment to be imposed on the broadcasters at a nine-member disciplinary committee meeting scheduled for June 13.